Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures

Many of you have asked many wonderful questions about my time in India and I thank you for your comments and emails as I traveled. I’m glad the follow-along-blog was a good idea! In light of your questions and the fact that I have a 15 page reflection paper looming on my “to-do” list, I thought I’d start the process on here. I plan on doing a city-by-city general summary of what happened and some thoughts.

So, first off, PASADENA!

After the first few states of our month-of-excessive-time-spent-in-airports, we made it to LA and got a first-class introduction to Los Angeles Traffic. It’s okay, though, because along the way we got to meet Creepy Wall Jesus (who doesn’t know what to do with his hands) and got a classic reaction from Stroope to some LA fashions. After sitting on Broadway for the longest time, we made it out to Pasadena to stay at William Carey International University. Throwing our bags into our rooms and quickly freshening up, we made our way to the house of our hosts for an excellent evening of conversations and questions. This evening is also where the blog title comes from, as Stroope made us introduce ourselves in alliterated form. So, for example, I was “charismatic Kristen.”

The next day was a full one. After a morning at church (which I have thoughts on), we headed out to Malibu. We met some students and had some time at the Malibu Hindu Temple – which is the second largest in the United States – and had our true first introduction to Hinduism. I plan on blogging about the monster known as Hinduism at a later date – but know that it both makes complete sense and no sense at all. The temple was a great introduction to some of what happened over the next month.

Then we headed out to the beach (drove past Pepperdine and felt horrible for Ken Starr and his change of scenery) and hiked down to Point Dume beach for conversations and bonding with some of the students who attend Chaiwalla at USC.  Then the day was topped off with time at the Glenn’s house for a LOST finale party. For the record – I am pretty annoyed at the finale. I am open to being less annoyed once they release the whole thing on DVD and I get a chance to re-watch everything, but right now? NOT COOL.

Our last day in Pasadena was a fairly academic day – so, of course, I loved it. We chatted with Varun Soni, the Dean of Religious Life at USC, who is also the first Hindu person to serve in such a position in the United States. He was gracious with his time and gave some valuable perspective on the system we were about to swim in. The afternoon was spent with H.L. Richards, who is a preemminent scholar on the interaction between Hinduism and Christianity. Also a valuable perspective.

As we boarded the flight that evening to Hong Kong, I had many thoughts swimming around my head. There was a lot of conversation about community and what community could look like. What does ‘doing life’ with Indian students living in the United States look like? A completely communal culture intersecting with a completely individual one – what boundaries need to die for those two to do well together?

Also – we spent a lot of time before we left studying how Hinduism and Christianity intersect in India… but this was the first time it occurred to me that they would intersect differently in America. How does folk Hinduism interact with folk Christianity?

I was honored and humbled by the people who opened their lives to us for those few days – both our hosts and the Chaiwalla students who were willing to be grilled mercilessly – and how I hoped to be able to be that for others. We talked about what makes a job ‘enough’ and how we judge ourselves against our calling. We talked about balancing sabbath with productivity and how leaning into questions is really the only way to survive life.

I remember feeling really antsy as we spent time in LA – ready to “start the journey” and get the trip underway. Now, as I reflect back, I realize that many of the questions I asked throughout the entire trip were responding to conversations over this period of time.

next up: walks of death to noddle shops (or: our time in hong kong)